Review - The Taking (The Taking #1) by Kimberly Derting

Title: The Taking

Author: Kimberly Derting

Series: 1st

Pages: 357

Published: April 29th 2014 by HarperTeen 

ISBN: 9780062293602

Source: Publisher via Edelweiss

Description: A flash of white light . . . and then . . . nothing.  When sixteen-year-old Kyra Agnew wakes up behind a Dumpster at the Gas ’n’ Sip, she has no memory of how she got there. With a terrible headache and a major case of déjà vu, she heads home only to discover that five years have passed . . . yet she hasn’t aged a day. Everything else about Kyra’s old life is different. Her parents are divorced, her boyfriend, Austin, is in college and dating her best friend, and her dad has changed from an uptight neat-freak to a drunken conspiracy theorist who blames her five-year disappearance on little green men. Confused and lost, Kyra isn’t sure how to move forward unless she uncovers the truth. With Austin gone, she turns to Tyler, Austin’s annoying kid brother, who is now seventeen and who she has a sudden undeniable attraction to. As Tyler and Kyra retrace her steps from the fateful night of her disappearance, they discover strange phenomena that no one can explain, and they begin to wonder if Kyra’s father is not as crazy as he seems. There are others like her who have been taken . . . and returned. Kyra races to find an explanation and reclaim the life she once had, but what if the life she wants back is not her own? 

I Give This ...

  I'm not super found of alien books.  They usually just aren't my thing.  But, I wanted to give this a shot because I love Kimberly Derting.  Plus, one never knows...I might have loved it.

I really loved the premise of this story.  Kyra disappears in a flash of light and turns up 5 years later.  Her whole life is different, except in the case of her physical self.  This was a part of the story I found greatly intriguing.  She hasn't aged a day in those 5 years.  So, she stuck in a life were her family and friends have gone without her.  Nothing feels the same and she must learn to deal with it.

I was intrigued by Kyra's interactions with everyone.  She must learn to deal with the fact that her parents are divorced, her mother is remarried, she has a half brother, and her father might be considered a little crazy.  The hardest thing of all is realizing that the boy she made so plans with, had to make them without her.  I understood her anger at Austin, but I'm glad she got over it.  It was really his fault.  I absolutely adored her interactions with Tyler.  It was a little strange at first, but I just had to take in the account that Kyra was 16 despite the tie that had passed.  

What got me in the end was really the alien aspect.  Turns out Krya's dad might be entirely crazy.  Kyra did go "somewhere" for those 5 years.  There are those in secret branch of the government that are trying to contain all those who have disappeared only to return "different."   But, there are those who have experienced exactly what Krya has the are willing to help her.  It might be at Tyler's expense though, and this is were the story lost me.  

I'm not entirely positive I will read the next one.  I would like to see what happens to Tyler and I'm interested in what actually happens to those who have disappeared.  But, I'm still not sold on the alien aspect.